Inclusion here does not endorse the veracity or quality of any particular item
– it just means I found it worth reading and reflecting on (even if badly conceived or poorly
written).

If you’re after the
unexpurgated (and reasonably unbiased) version, see Religion News Australia which
appears weekly on our website.

ABUSE

Abuse unseen but 'on the
radar', Cardinal George Pell tells commission(Sydney Morning Herald) Feb 29 - Cardinal George Pell was aware of the existence of clerical sexual
abuse in the early 1970s but failed to recognise widespread offending when he
was a junior priest in Ballarat, despite gossip that Christian Brothers there
were assaulting children.

Cardinal George Pell is
finished whatever way you look at it(Sydney Morning Herald) Mar 5 – (Opinion: Peter FitzSimons) Staggeringly, even after all the testimony
of Cardinal Pell this week at the royal commission, there is still a scattered
band of supporters who refuse to accept the obvious: it is over, and he is
finished.

Religious
Violence

How Islamic State is
training child killers in doctrine of hate (The Guardian, Australia) Mar 6 - A new generation of Isis recruits is being developed in the Islamic
State’s “caliphate”, indoctrinated with religious concepts from birth, and
viewed by its fighters as better and purer than themselves, according to the
first study of the exploitation and abuse of children as a means of securing
the group’s future.

Australia could be the
next Paris, terrorism expert warns(Sydney Morning Herald) Mar 6 - Progress in the bombing campaign against Islamic State has heightened
the risk of the terror group lashing out and striking back on Australian soil,
one of the world experts on suicide terrorism has warned.